The UFC has dominated the MMA market in to the point that becoming champion in the organization means, in the eyes of the vast majority of fans, that you are the undisputed world’s best in that weight class. For heavyweight veteran Alexander Volkov, that understanding has shifted as of late.
Volkov hoped to compete for UFC gold after winning six of his past seven bouts, with the sole loss being a controversial split decision to current undisputed champion Ciryl Gane. Since then, he’s watched Gane receive two title shots against Tom Aspinall and Alex Pereira, and is now booked to defend his championship at UFC 334 on Nov. 14 against Josh Hokit, a man who started fighting MMA when Volkov was already 11-4 in the UFC and 37-10 in the sport.
The former Bellator heavyweight champion told MMA Fighting earlier this year that having Gane vs. Pereira for the interim belt was “more like a promotional or media fight” than a “true title fight.” After watching Gane commit fouls in the UFC White House match and then get paired up against the “loud” Hokit, Volkov sees a new meaning to the UFC gold.
“Is Ciryl Gane a real champion right now? He is real if he has a belt,” Volkov told MMA Fighting ahead of UFC 333. “But what means his belt right now? This is the question. Maybe it loses the meaning all fans want it to have. Like, we want to trust it’s the most powerful, skilled fighter in the world. As, for example, it was like K-1 in the past, when you just fought eight fighters like the same day. It was a show, but the main thing was just fighting, you know? But now we can get fights, title shots [for] just being more famous, and doesn’t matter how you [became] famous. It doesn’t matter what you do, and you took the fight just because most people know you and they want you to be beaten or win the fight.”
“The belt has the meaning of the fighter who has it right now,” he continued. “If we talk about Gane, he has the belt. We can see he is a champion for having this belt. So the meaning of the belt is like that, a champion who can eye poke somebody in a fight, kick a groin or do something else, and then knock out guys and become a champion because he hurt another champion before. Now, the meaning of the belt is the same. Then he will fight with a with a guy who is just very loud right now, kind of showman. If he would take this belt, the meaning of the belt is that now you should be a showman to get the belt.
“But [one day] it will be about a fighter who just can beat everybody, not speak a lot, do it like there’s no cheating or something like that, and be just a martial artist. This belt will have this meaning. If I will have the belt, the belt will have meaning.”
Pereira, now 0-1 in the heavyweight division, fights Sergei Pavlovich in the co-main event of UFC 335 on Dec. 12, and a win for the former two-division champion could potentially set him up for another shot at a third UFC title. Meanwhile, Volkov returns to the octagon at Saturday’s UFC 333 in Abu Dhabi to face lower-ranked Rizvan Kuniev despite being on a two-fight winning streak over Waldo Cortes-Acosta and Jailton Almeida.
Volkov signed a new “very good” multi-fight deal with the UFC in the lead-up to UFC 333 and remains confident he could earn a title shot with a win in Abu Dhabi regardless of the outcome in Pavlovich vs. Pereira. Still, he knows “it depends on if someone who makes the decision likes the fight.”
“How can I change the [opinion] of the people who decide?” Volkov said. “Of course, I understand what they want and I will try to do, but whatever happens, happens. We’ll see. I’m just trying to do what I should do. … I’ll be like, ‘Oh, I should win by knockout; or not, I should be pragmatic. I come, I do my thing, I try to find the punch or takedown or whatever, defend, see what he do and try to be most effective.’ And that’s it.”
“Of course, I would like to fight somebody higher in the ranking to get close to the title, but who can be closer to the title than me, who is No. 2 in ranking?” he added. “It’s just show for show. I’m earning money, I do my job, I’m challenging myself. where I am as a fighter right now, testing my skills. This is nothing more than that.”